Currency debasement just the cost of doing business, raising new capital with toxic waste, looting on Wall street, looting in Europe, the heart has been ripped out of the US economy, US Credit rating downgraded, facing the collapse of the western welfare state.

August 6 2011

The entire concept of keeping the economy functioning is based upon US dollar debasement via the creation of excess money and credit, which is accompanied by departments of government and Wall Street. Once in the past 11 years in particular we have seen lies, fraud, bogus statistics and Mickey Mouse bookkeeping. For good measure the powers behind government have thrown in the gutting of America’s industrial base by outsourcing and offshoring. As an extra temporary measure the Fed has bailed out the financial sectors in the US and Europe and continues to bail out the US Treasury. Who cares about currency debasement because it’s a cost of doing business.

We just witnessed another piece of legislation to destroy Social Security, Medicare and to usurp the US Constitution’s power to govern America via a “star chamber” group of 12 bought and paid for political operatives. Their style of government is very reminiscent of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany.

Currency debasement goes on relentlessly worldwide and now the Fed is hinting that a QE 3 may be needed. We expected those trial balloons to appear on or about August 15th to be followed during the first two weeks of September of an announcement and beginning of QE 3. We felt the $300 billion they could roll over from existing Treasuries would be exhausted around September 1st. We expect during August the Fed will make a major effort to sell CDOs and MBSs, better known as toxic waste to raise more capital. The question is how much will be lost in these latter transactions, that the American people will be responsible for? Again taxpayers pay for bank losses being laundered by the Fed, which a number of the banks involved own. These actions further demean the value of the dollar, cause worse inflation and force gold and silver related assets higher.

The desperate economic and financial positions of Americans worsen as a result of these actions. Despair reigns as fellow Americans lose jobs, vehicles and homes only to move in with relatives or descend to living under a bridge.

Inflation is now affecting corporate profits that had been robust via laying off employees that make up 70% of their cost structure and installing new labor saving machinery, so that they can lay off more workers. This is accomplished via administration tax breaks.

Retirement savings are being wiped out in this process as many reach a stage of desperation. Government is so concerned at this depletion of assets that a bill has been introduced into the Senate to limit withdrawals and the number of withdrawals. The dirty little secret is the government wants that $6 trillion for itself, for which it will issue, guaranteed annuities. Mind you the US government is broke. Another Ponzi scheme to pay this annuity with your own funds. Again, get out of your IRA’S, your 401K’S and retirement funds and if you can’t, borrow against them, and buy gold and silver coins, bullion and shares. Gold owes no one anything and for 6,000 years has been the only real money. If present actions by the Fed continue in 2013-2015, we will have hyperinflation and gold and silver will soar as the dollar and other fiat currencies lose value in a big way versus these two precious metals. For the last 11 years, versus nine major currencies, on average each year, have lost more than 20% annually versus gold and silver. What more proof do you need that a long-term trend is in tact and that trend is your friend? We are headed for a modern Weimar collapse or perhaps a Zimbabweization of the American and many other economies. All currencies and countries will be affected in varying degrees and in the end there will only be gold and silver that represents value. If you do not want to starve or you want to keep your wealth together the only safe place to be is in gold and silver related assets.

People have to understand the truth and come out of denial. They have been duped and hoodwinked for centuries. That is especially true of Americans, who believed the lies being fed to them for many years, a very sophisticated program of disinformation and propaganda. The media has had the public going in one direction, when the criminals on Wall Street and in banking had a free for all looting these unknowing souls - corruption on a gigantic scale. As a result the public has lost in stocks and bonds via manipulation and inflation, which continually has destroyed their purchasing power. This has pushed Americans into major debt, which has enslaved half of the population.

The same has happened in England and Europe. The UK is barely holding on, Europe and the euro zone are in serious trouble. We have been called in to participate on radio, TV and via magazine and editor interviews. In one week we did Athens, Tehran, Rio de Janeiro and Caracas. Obviously the world is thirsting for knowledge and the truth. After 65 years, Europe and others are finding that socialism is very expensive and doesn’t produce the promised results. America is slowly discovering that the land of the free and home of the brave has become a corporatist fascist nightmare, and those pulling the strings from behind the scenes have just begun their enslavement of the American people. The cost of government regulation alone is killing the economies in the US, UK and Europe. Worse yet, the US and their British and European allies are planning one war after another. Their citizens and those of their adversaries become cannon fodder for profit, and distraction for underlying economic and financial problems. Just to show you their duplicity they have wasted almost $100 billion in Libyan assets in the US and Europe. They are in the process of being stolen. Just ask Bill Clinton who said we should use $5 billion of those funds to fund the Libyan rebels. This is the kind of fascist government the US government has become. The suicides, cover-ups and false flag operations go on one after another.

The situation in Greece, not yet really settled, has caused contagion in Italy and Spain, as the yields on their bonds reach new highs. The Greek deal is still not settled and another month is being wasted on vacations all around.

It is now a matter of when the US government decides it is time to commandeer retirement funds, 401Ks and IRAs. It won’t be long before redemption becomes impossible for CDs and Treasury bonds. All those poor souls who don’t listen are going to lose most of what they have. They have been mesmerized by misdirection, propaganda and the lies of those controlling the government. The departments of government are a total part of the program of deception. That includes the FBI and the Justice Department, along with the SEC and CFTC, all of which are a part of the criminal conspiracy. Then there is the continual cry of too big to fail that shelters the major banks that own the Fed. These banks that are allowed to carry two sets of books are all broke. There are also the participants in the make-believe derivative casino. These are the same banks that refuse to lend to small and medium sized companies rendering any recovery impossible. There can never be a recovery without a strong industrial base, which Americas no longer has. Free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing has ripped the heart out of the US economy and left a wake of permanent unemployment. The country is collapsing by inches and yards and 85% of the public has no concept of what is going on and what is being done to them. America is headed into insolvency and only those with gold and silver related assets will survive. Your country is about to become a third world nation, because your corrupted politicians will lead you there. Soon America will have no middle class upon which to depend. They are victims of bank fraud. Their foreclosed homes are being bulldozed and they are being consumed by lack of purchasing power due to systemic rising inflation. The US is being deliberately destroyed. From a political viewpoint those in office being paid off by the elitists have to be defeated in the primaries. If they are not there is no hope for revival. We desperately need Ron Paul to hopefully shape those changes. If those things do not happen the legal avenue to change is over and the alterative left to the people is revolution. America has few freedoms left and soon there will be none. The shift to servitude is in progress and in three years they’ll be enslavement, but people will call it something else in order to deny that such a condition exists. Those who have rescued their wealth via gold and silver related assets will be the leaders of tomorrow and they will aggregate only as much as 15% of the population. People have to ignore the noise, propaganda and misdirection of the controlled major media. It is calculated to send you in the wrong direction and to neutralize you. In the future the currency, what ever it may be, will be gold backed. After putting away food, having a water filter and something to defend your family with you must have gold and silver coins to protect your assets. You have to anticipate the carnage that is in process and it is your patriotic duty to protect yourself and your family from destruction at the hands of the state and those Illuminists who control the state. In 22-1/2 years we have been correct 98% of the time. We take no joy in being right about such tragic events and the destruction of a civilization and culture, but truth and reality are what they are and we try to convey that to you. We are now witnessing an acceleration of the plan to steal most everything the public possesses via fraud and then confiscation. We do not see that including gold, because less than 1% of the population owns gold and those behind government know it is not worth the trouble and resistance. There will be enough trouble when they decide to take your weapons. That move is not far away. This is not happy news, but it is the way things are and unless the Americans quickly resist they will either end up enslaved or dead. You saw what the communists and Nazis did. They were financed by the same people that are trying to take our freedom today. You had best do something about it, or you will suffer the consequences of inaction and you won’t like the results.

"It's the right thing for taxpayers," Scott said after signing the measure. "It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs."

Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services will be required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify. Those who fail the required drug testing may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of their children.

The DC goofs still don’t understand that the major problem is the collapse of the western welfare state.

The political-socio-economic model of the past 75 years or so is kaput. And an increasing number of people realize the US debt deal is an innocuous, political expedient exercise that reduces the budget this year by only $22B, with a CBO GDP assumption of 3+% growths!!!

Ergo, the US budget deficit could soar well beyond $1.7 trillion this FY. GOP leaders will have hell to pay by the next budget negotiations in February if the deficit swells and/or taxes increase.

President Barack Obama said final congressional passage of legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling and trim the deficit is a “first step” on a path that must include both increased revenue as well as spending cuts to narrow the government’s long-term budget shortfall.

“We can’t balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the brunt of this recession,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, minutes after the Senate gave final approval to the bill.

The GOP is betting that it will capture the WH and Senate in 2012 and then serious deficit reduction will be implemented. Democrats are hoping that Americans will demand more government largesse and force the GOP to hike taxes ASAP.

The so-called super committee that would be responsible for cutting $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit is poised to create a new class on K Street: The Superlobbyists.

When the Divine Dozen are named, it will lead “to the emergence of a pack of superlobbyists who will have access to those members” and who can try to protect clients from the carnage…That’s because with only six members from each party on the committee, influencing the super committee will largely be an inside game with Democratic and Republican lobbyists working their respective lawmakers.

American’s spending turned negative in June (-0.2%) for the first time since September 2009. Without government largesse (personal transfer receipts) personal income would have declined.

Personal income increased $18.7 billion, or 0.1 percent…Personal current transfer receipts increased $9.5 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $1.4 billion. Government largesse is 51% of income growth.

Americans on food stamps jumped 1.1 million in May to 45,753,078 from 44,647,861 (+12/1% y/y).

Service industries expanded in July at the slowest pace in 17 months as orders and employment cooled, indicating the biggest part of the U.S. economy had little spark to begin the second half of the year.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non- manufacturing businesses, which covers about 90 percent of the economy, dropped to 52.7 from 53.3 in June. Readings above 50 signal expansion, and the median projection in a Bloomberg News survey was for 53.5 in July. Companies hired fewer workers last month than in June, a report from ADP Employer Services showed.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance payments in the U.S. fell last week to a level that shows limited improvement in the labor market.

Applications for jobless benefits decreased 1,000 in the week ended July 30 to 400,000, the fewest in almost four months, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Economists forecast 405,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The four-week average also declined to the lowest level since April.

Companies with fewer than 50 employee’s added 58,000 jobs nationwide last month, while businesses with 50 to 500 workers hired 47,000 people, according to the study. Only 9,000 new positions were at large firms with more than 500 staffers…

Job cuts surged to a 16-month high in July as 66,414 employees found themselves out of work, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The number of cuts was up more than 60% from June and up nearly 60% from the same period in 2010, according to the report. Industries such as pharmaceuticals and retail that previously seemed immune to heavy bloodletting were hit hard.

Federal Reserve officials face two constraints as they prepare for a policy meeting next week amid a dismal economic outlook.

First, inflation is already elevated by many measures and could become more so if the Fed takes new steps to revive the economy. And, second…officials don't have tools ideally suited to fix the economy's problems…the constraints mean the central bank is unlikely for now to embark on a big new program of securities purchases at the Aug. 9 meeting or launch other major initiatives.

For the moment, and for as long as possible, the central bank would like to do nothing. There is broad agreement that the unprecedented size of the Fed’s portfolio has complicated its ability to control the pace of inflation, and that additional purchases would exacerbate the difficulty.

Mr. Bernanke has said that growth must weaken and price increases abate. A vocal minority of Fed officials has gone further, arguing the central bank has reached the limit of its powers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission paid a performance-based bonus to an employee for work on a 2009 investigation related to Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, even though the person had played a key role in earlier botched probes of the fraud, the agency’s watchdog said.

Both the employee who received the $1,200 award and his supervisor who approved it had been cited “for numerous performance issues and were subject to potential disciplinary action at the time the award recommendation was made,’’ inspector general H. David Kotz said in a report published yesterday on the SEC’s website.

The payment was made for the employee’s 2009 efforts in a follow-on investigation related to Madoff, Kotz said.

The award was proposed in September 2009, just two weeks after Kotz had admonished the employee for his critical role in a 2005 examination and 2006 investigation that failed to uncover the scheme, according to the report.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to drop an administrative action against former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) director Rajat Gupta, who has pledged to dismiss a lawsuit claiming the regulatory proceeding violated his constitutional rights.

“Mr. Gupta is very pleased that as a result of his lawsuit the SEC has dismissed its administrative proceeding and he will no longer be singled out for disparate treatment,” Gary Naftalis, his lawyer, said in a statement. “Mr. Gupta’s lawsuit against the SEC has achieved all of the relief he sought.”

The SEC started an administrative proceeding in Washington March 1, claiming Gupta passed inside information to Galleon Group LLC co-founder Raj Rajaratnam about Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG), where Gupta was also on the board.

According to an agreement filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan, the SEC will file any future complaint against Gupta in that court, where it would be heard by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff.

Mortgage rates for 30-year loans plunged to the lowest level in more than eight months. The average for a 30-year fixed loan dropped to 4.39 percent in the week ended yesterday from 4.55 percent, according to Freddie Mac. The average 15-year fixed-loan rate decreased to a record 3.54 percent from 3.66 percent.

The decline followed a slide in yields for 10-year Treasury notes, which touched the lowest level since November on Wednesday as concern grew that the economy is slowing.

The rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is the lowest since the week ended Nov. 18, when it also was 4.39 percent.

It fell earlier in November to 4.17 percent, the lowest in Freddie Mac records dating to 1971.

The low borrowing costs have done little to boost home sales as banks tighten lending standards, the unemployment rate sticks above 9 percent, and a glut of foreclosed properties drag down prices.

About 22.7 percent of homeowners with mortgages were underwater in the first quarter, meaning they owe than their properties are worth, according to CoreLogic Inc.

MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF) took the cult of the Wall Street chief executive officer to a new level with a plan to sell bonds that pay a higher rate if Chairman and CEO Jon Corzine quits to take a job from the U.S. president.

The futures broker is selling $300 million in five-year unsecured notes, said a person familiar with the offering who declined to be identified because the terms aren’t final. The notes will pay an extra percentage point of interest if Corzine is named to a federal post and confirmed by the Senate before July 2013, New York-based MF Global said in a regulatory filing.

“That seems crazy,” said William Larkin, a fixed-income portfolio manager who oversees $500 million at Cabot Money Management Inc. in Salem, Massachusetts, and has 22 years of experience. “I’ve never heard of something like this.”

Corzine, the 64-year-old former governor of New Jersey, helped run Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) from 1994 to 1999 and served in the Senate from 2001 to 2006. Since joining MF Global last year, he’s taken more risk with the firm’s money in a bid to remake the broker into a mid-size investment bank and has sought to alter its capital structure to reduce borrowing costs. The shares rose 9.5 percent in the past year under his watch, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index fell 4.9 percent.

A Democrat, Corzine is among the biggest fundraisers for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. He has been the subject of speculation about administration jobs such as Treasury secretary or White House economic adviser, said Christopher Allen, an analyst at Evercore Partners Inc. in New York.

PMI Group Inc. (PMI), the third-largest mortgage insurer, plunged by almost half after the company posted its 16th straight unprofitable quarter and failed to meet regulators’ capital requirements.

The risk-to-capital ratio was 58.1-to-1 as of June 30 at the Mortgage Insurance Co. unit, above the regulatory maximum of 25-to-1 set by state watchdogs. The unit is prohibited from writing business in six states, and waivers in four others expire by the end of the year, PMI said in a statement today.

“We expect the number of states in which MIC is precluded from writing new business will significantly increase,” PMI said in the statement. The insurer plans to meet with regulators to discuss “various capital initiatives the company is pursuing.”

The ratio translates to a $320 million capital deficit, said Douglas Harter, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. Harter cut his recommendation on the stock to “neutral” from “outperform.”

The insurer’s shortfall “greatly increases the likelihood of PMI needing to dilute existing shareholders,” he said.

PMI slipped 43 cents, or 49 percent, to 45 cents at 10:09 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The mortgage insurer has dropped 73 percent this year through yesterday.

PMI pays lenders when homeowners default and foreclosure fails to recoup costs. The second-quarter net loss narrowed to $134.8 million, or 83 cents a share, from $150.6 million, or $1.11, a year earlier, the Walnut Creek, California-based company said today. This year’s result included a $150.5 million gain tied to the sale of discontinued operations.

The European Central Bank bought government bonds for the first time since March, just hours after the Bank of Japan intervened in currency markets to halt the rise of the yen and the Turkish central bank cut rates to an all-time low.

Bernanke, econobulls and trapped commodity & stock bulls should be extremely concerned that the ‘beneficial’ effects of QE are now greatly diminished.

1% TAX FOR ALL BANK TRANSACTIONS- OPEN YOUR EYES

This is a House bill. If this doesn't make you contact your congressman, nothing will.

Watch for this AFTER November elections; remember this BEFORE you VOTE in case you think Obama's looking out for your best interest.

1% tax on all bank transactions HR 4646

This government just cannot think of enough ways to hurt the American people!This Bill must die FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

1% tax on all bank transactions HR 4646 - ANOTHER NEW OBAMA TAX SLIPPED IN WHILE WE WERE ASLEEP.

President Obama's finance team is recommending a one percent (1%) transaction fee (TAX). Obama's plan is to sneak it in after the November elections to keep it under the radar.

This is a 1% tax on all transactions at any financial institution - banks, credit unions, savings and loans, etc. Any deposit you make, or even a transfer within your account, will have a 1% tax charged.

~If your paycheck or your social security or whatever is direct deposit, it will get a 1% tax charged for the transaction.

~If your paycheck is $1000, then you will pay Obama $10 just for the privilege of depositing your paycheck in your bank. Even if you hand carry your paycheck or any check into your bank for a deposit, 1% tax will be charged.

~You receive a $5,000 stock dividend from your broker, Obama takes $50 just to allow you to deposit that check in the bank.

~If you take $1,000 cash to deposit at your bank, 1% tax will be charged.

Mind you, this is from the man who promised that, if you make under $250,000 per year, you will not see one penny of new tax. Keep your eyes and ears open, you will be amazed at what you learn about this guy's under-the-table moves to increase the number of ways you are taxed.

~Oh, and by the way, you receive a refund from the IRS next year and you have it direct deposited or you walk in to deposit that check, you guessed it. You will pay a 1% charge of that money just for putting it in your bank. Remember,

any money, cash, check or whatever, no matter where it came from, you will pay a 1% fee if you put it in the bank.

Some will say, oh well, it's just 1%. Are you kidding me? It's a 1% tax increase across the board. Remember, once the tax is there, they can also raise it at will. And if anyone protests, they will just say, "oh,that's not really a tax, it's a user fee"! Think this is no big deal? Go back and look at the transactions you made from last year's banking statements. Then add the total of all those transactions and deduct 1%.

It is true. The bill is HR-4646 introduced by US Rep Peter deFazio D-Oregon and US Senator Tom Harkin D-Iowa. Their plan is to sneak it in after the moved beyond proposing studies and submitted the Debt Free

America Act (H.R. 4646) , a bill calling for the implementation of a scheme to pay down the [2010] by Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.). His "Debt Free America Act" (H.R. 4646) would impose a 1 percent "transaction tax" on every financial transaction...

Ever since they fudged the numbers to pass ObamaCare, Democrats have abandoned credible spending plans.

It has been over two years since the Democrat-controlled Senate passed any budget at all.

Health-care costs rose about 8% in 2011 and are projected to rise by 8.5% in 2012. At this rate, taxes would have to rise again and again just to keep up with health-care spending. Is it any wonder that the president and his party are afraid to produce a budget that requires such ruinous levels of taxation?...

What caught our eye in Paul Ryan’s op-ed piece in the WSJ: 1) the admission that US leaders fudge economic and financial data; and 2) healthcare costs increased 8% in 2011.

The BLS has healthcare costs up only 2.9% y/y for June. Plus, the BLS greatly under-weighs healthcare at only 6.627% of CPI, even though it is about 17% of GDP.

With realistic inflation accounting of healthcare, CPI would be ~1.17% higher; GDP would be negative.

About 2 points of that increase came from gas prices…Inflation also played a part in higher clothing and food costs, and more expensive luxury items due to record prices for gold and silver…

Taxed-out New Yorkers are voting with their feet, with a staggering 1.6 million residents fleeing the state over the last decade. For the second consecutive decade, New York led the nation in the percentage of residents leaving for other states, according to the report by the Empire Center for State Policy.

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government's debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday…The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.

Note to those pining for QE 3.0: A main excuse for monetizing US debt was the desire to lower 10-year interest rates to stimulate housing. 1) This didn’t help housing; and 2) 10-year and 30-year interest rates are lower now than during QE 2.0. Ergo the excuse to lower rates to aid the economy is not valid now.

We have warned that Bernanke was screwing up big time by not hiking rates, even marginally, when stocks and commodities started getting jiggy in 2010. Besides fomenting the inflation that would kill any economic recovery, Bernanke, in an egregious act of myopia, forfeited the interest rate reduction card.

"It seems we've thrown everything at it. We've had QE1 and QE2, Stimulus 1 and Stimulus 2, and the unemployment rate is still 9.2 percent," said John Makin, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Maybe there are just not many options here at this point," he said…

"Everyone is really looking to the Fed to support the economy, and I think (Bernanke) would realize that you could only do so much with monetary policy," said Mike Knebel at Portland, Oregon-based Ferguson Wellman Capital Management.

The Fed's scope for more easing of monetary policy has been narrowed by a rise in core inflation, which bottomed at 0.9 percent in December but has since hit 1.3 percent.

SHORT NOTES

Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings affirmed their AAA credit ratings for the U.S. while warning that the ratings could be downgraded if lawmakers fail to enact debt reduction measures and the economy weakens. The rating outlook is now negative, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday after President Barack Obama signed into law a plan to lift the nation’s borrowing limit and cut spending. UPDATE: Standard & Poor downgrades US Credit Rating: http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/552622/standard---poor-downgrades-us-credit-rating/

Pennsylvanians on public assistance now have a new 'civil right' -- free cell phones. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to pay higher cell bills as a result.

Recently, a federal government program called the Universal Service Fund came to the Keystone State and some residents are thrilled because it means they can enjoy 250 minutes a month and a handset for free, just because they don't have the money to pay for it.

Americans pay more for health care than Sweden and France, spending more on hospital visits, prescriptions and diagnostic-imaging tests, yet don’t always get better results, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

Spending more than twice as much per capita as Germany, Sweden and France still leaves the U.S. with the worst record among 12 developed countries on hospital admissions for asthma, congestive heart failure and diabetes complications, according to the fund, a private policy and research foundation based in New York. The U.S. scored best on survival rates for cancers such as breast and colorectal.

Companies in the U.S. added 114,000 workers to payrolls in July, according to a private survey. The increase followed a revised 145,000 gain the prior month, according to data from ADP Employer Services. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an advance of 100,000.

American employers added more jobs than forecast in July and wages climbed, easing concern the world’s largest economy is grinding to a halt.

Payrolls rose by 117,000 workers after a 46,000 increase in June that was larger than earlier estimated, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for a gain of 85,000. The jobless rate dropped to 9.1 percent as discouraged workers left the labor force. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.4 percent.

Bank of New York said that it will charge 0.13% plus an additional fee if the one-month Treasury yield dips below zero on depositors that have accounts with an average monthly balance of $50 million "per client relationship," according to a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The bank pays about 0.10% to the FDIC to insure deposit accounts, and if its deposits swell massively, it could face capital charges.

The likely loss of unemployment benefits for 3.71 million Americans in a few months will only add to an economy edging ever closer to recession.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists say the ending of benefits for the so-called "99ers" those who have exceeded their normal benefit allotment and are on an emergency compensation program through the end of the year will slow the economy even further. The term comes from a previous extension to 99 weeks of eligibility for benefits.

Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."… Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said. "Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.

For July 2010, the BLS’s B/D Model deleted 38k jobs. May and June job growth was horrid, 25k and 18k respectively. But those dismal NFP readings occurred with large B/D jobs additions, 206k for May and 131k for June.

Fiscal Conservatives Barred from Supercommittee. Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS that senators who vote against the deal will be ineligible to serve on the so-called “supercommittee” for deficit reduction that the legislation creates.

Congressman Ron Paul warns that the all-powerful new “Super Congress” created by the vote on the debt ceiling will be used to fast-track tax increases while concentrating more power over the nation’s purse strings in the hands of the Washington elite.